Javon’s Blog

The poem covers how Maya feels oppressed. However the poem takes an unexpected turn as she turns this and decides to be happy and grateful with her life instead of letting the oppressors win. She talks of the different ways in which they can alter her name and what she has done with “twisted lies” and how they can bury her in the dirt yet “Still, like dust, I rise.” Remarking how it is an inevitable event that will occur as a force of nature even. She then uses the next couple stanzas to remark on how they need to not only not treat her as equal, but want to put people of color so far down that they are left unhappy if anyone is okay with themselves. She uses three stanzas with different lines comparing how she acts like she is rich and that she acts as such and how that happiness is what she feels when it comes to her life. There is a lot of different allusions to her just being rich and how that has affected her for the better because she would be proud of who she is and how she talks. She uses similes to compare herself to rich extravagant things as well which points to how she personally views herself. The items to compare to are oil drills, gold mines, and diamonds which all lead to nothing but wealth. Also there is a description of how the oppressors question why she does not feel sorry for herself. As if she is not trash and her life is not bad. Racism is quite obviously at play here and yet her response to all of it was that she as a person did not truly feel that these stereotypes and rules that were set on her would be the chains that broke her. Instead she believed that she herself has broken those chains and that no matter what she knows her value as a human being. She should be proud of her culture and past that is rooted in pain and leaving behind the terrors that came with them. Through everything that has or will occur she chooses to rise above it all because she herself is better than that and she knows that the day she decides against rising is the day that she would lose all hope and give the enemy the exact thing that they were looking for. The overall message is not just how letting her oppressors win with their racist remarks and cut throat ways is not the way to defeat them. Rather the full message is that we matter no matter who you are and that when someone tells you otherwise there is not much wisdom in the words they give. The only way that they win is if we allow ourselves to lose by giving in. Overall I really like this poem because it tackled a big issue and has smaller issues implanted within it making it enjoyable to see a poet so brave that is willing to call out these issues that are laid in front of her.

“Ode to sleep” by Jon Sands is a poem about the sleep our author gets. It ranges from when he is hungover and realizes he did not get enough sleep. As well as moments where while sleeping he believed crazy ideas such as being trapped in a forest that is completely made of Styrofoam, or on a less school appropriate note “getting a blowjob from Cate Blanchett, even though she looked exactly like this girl I went to high school with, but we both still knew she was Cate Blanchett?”. As well as how hard it is to get up after sleep like how every morning it takes him “a half-hour untying myself from you each morning.”. He remarks how sleep must know him the best because of the time he spends with him, whether that be how “my body crooks into itself when I’m lonely.”. Suggesting that it is a good place for him. Also how he wonders where it goes when I am forgetting you most, and how even on his plan he can feel sleep coming to him. This poem is relatable to some extent for whomever reads it. I personally relate to the multitude of crazy dreams that sleep is the cause of or how you really can’t seem to pry yourself from your own bed after waking up early in the morning. He also does a good job making this poem both inclusive to all but also exclusive to himself personally. He is able to do this through weird dreams that he has had or talk about his schedule one day with “A two a.m. uptown 6 train into the Bronx, eleven stops past my apartment in East Harlem.”. These details allow for us to see his personal experiences and opinions on sleep. The poem itself is an extended metaphor and does an amazing job of personifying sleep. Sands describes sleep as if it is a close friend that gives the best ways to comfort you and how you are feeling. As well as wondering something about a friend like a habit they do and it just makes the read that more enticing. Also after looking it over again the poem is an apostrophe referring to this personified object in question. The shift of the poem occurs before the “I think you know me best.” Beforehand the poem seems quite joke heavy with no serious or meaningful comments developed. Right after though there is a shift immediately to a more serious and thought provoking mindset. Curious questions are asked as well as harsh realities come to mind. It’s also just a paragraph with no quotations despite it being almost a monologue to sleep. My favorite line is “I think you know me the best” because it can be taken in two different directions. On one end sleep is just well sleep and that statement is ridiculous and so it makes no sense. However, on the other end if you take the personification of sleep it is a true statement as we can not escape it. We spent so much of our lives doing this one thing. We even depend on it as shown in experiments where people have tried to go without sleep and have gone insane. It is crazy to believe that this normal task can be seen as addicting to us where we are left fatigued when we go without it. Sleep to me is a crazy concept as sometimes you do it accidentally while others it seems no matter how hard you try you will never achieve the comfort of a good night’s rest.

I feel like the overall tone of this poem is very sorrowful and reflective. It seems as if this was more of a new thought where one takes a step back from their life and begins to feel a regret of sorts. He talks of diet coke being “put in my absence” as well as “I wish your outsides were made of nothingness” both of these convey to him not truly feeling like he amounts to anything. Almost like he is but an observer that everyone just ignores and he can’t blame them for it. There is also him asking to be pointed at yourself who is Mr. Poet I believe he does this because of this loneliness he feels he wishes and hopes to be pointed at him because he was just previously talking about naming things that he is pointed at. So when you name something in this case another person you can add a personal attachment to said someone this would allow for him to be able to grow close and more attached to another instead of having to be nothingness. He also refers to bricks which I think is an illusion to memories or thoughts that we as people bookmark and collect. He brings up “karaoke and back-flipped laughter” as well as “you no longer enjoy being single” to express the reflection that he is undergoing and how there is a range of emotions to experience when you look at all these bricks. With structure I find that he puts it in a paragraph which at first I looked over but I see it as more of a brick itself. Now sure one could say it’s a reach but I think that it checked all the boxes necessary with how he named the poem and it is a reflection on a  thought or idea that he has had. He also alludes to the color blue a lot and after some research the color blue meaning can be open spaces which goes with the emptiness he refers to with him being “made of a window” or “I am made of a tunnel” nothing specific at all just there, existing in reality. On the topic of those two lines it also represents us as people he uses the sense of sight to show how he feels in society. Just as one can go through a tunnel and think nothing of it or look through a window as if it’s not there is the way he feels like people just go through him or look through him and that he is forced into this role of being just a measly observer of those around him. Also he refers to a character being “Mr. Turquoise Poet” which is the color turquoise which means peace and serenity. He also wishes that his “outsides  were made of nothingness” ; this is his true feelings towards this character who appears to be the opposite of what he wants to be. I by a personal experience can relate to feeling like an observer of not just others and their lives but your own. You see and listen to everyone else’s stories and how their life seems so great, and you try to look at your own and nothing seems to add up. The title is significant as well because throughout the entire poem all you can really feel is empty. Whether it was a fun recount of a memory or a much darker with how he is nothing but an absence of something you can but feel it all just sinks in o the emptiness of the whole poem.

Jon Sands was born in 1980 in New York City. He grew up in a diverse cultural environment which influenced his writing style greatly. His passion for poetry grew from Bennington College in College. He also loves to teach poetry and uses his passion for poetry to help others flourish. Some awards he has won the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Fellowship, The Pushcart Prize, and lots of grants.

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